Cyclone separator, also called centrifugal force separator, cyclone or cyclone filter, are used to separate solid or liquid particles contained in gases.
In the cyclone separator, gases together with the particles are set into a rotating movement by a corresponding constructive design. The centrifugal forces acting on the particles accelerate them radially outwards. As a result, they are separated from the gas flow, which is guided inwardly and discharged.
Due to the moderate filtration performance with very fine particles compared with other methods, the cyclone filtration is often used as part of a filter chain in a multi-stage air filter system. For separating fine dust particles it is, therefore, state-of-the-art to equip the cyclone filter additionally with a conventional final filter. The air pre-cleaned by the cyclone filtration is conveyed through the filter medium of the final filter, wherein impurities of the air are deposited on the filter medium. By so doing, it is possible to enhance the filtration performance of the cyclone filter.
The state-of-the-art filter elements are in some cases only insufficiently adapted to cope with the special requirements for being used as final filter in an air filtering in a cyclone filter downstream of the cyclone filtration. One problem, in particular, is that the air is swirled after the cyclone filtration. As a result, the filter medium of the final filter is flowed through irregularly, thus reducing the filtering effect.
Furthermore, conventional state-of-the-art filter elements are commonly equipped with filter media having cross-sections in even, round or oval shape. If a filter medium is now provided with an optimized cross-section shape for achieving an enhanced filtration performance, a particularly high degree of air purity can be achieved with the air exiting the filter.
Technical systems, consisting for example of an internal combustion engine and the upstream air filter for cleaning the inlet air to the combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine, are often developed as an overall system. As a consequence, specific requirements for the maximum mounting space, the accessibility for changing the filter element, the pressure loss in the system and the degree of purity of the air supplied to the internal combustion engine and therefore also to the filtration performance of the upstream air filter result from this.
Furthermore, single- and multi-stage filter systems, in particular with a cyclone precleaner, often have, for example, the disadvantage that changing the filter elements requires more effort because of the mounting space conditions.